Friday, January 31, 2014

The Mountain Mover

I love the New Year! Don’t get me wrong, I can’t stand winter, but I adore the promise that a new year brings. Nothing really changes between December 31, 2013 and January 1, 2014, but there’s just something wonderful about a new start.

One thing I do every year, personally and corporately, along with my church family is read the Bible. For me, this all began two years ago reading through the Bible, from beginning to end. And it’s true, no matter how many times you read stories from the Bible, you can always glean new information you never noticed before. Last year was a chronological reading of the Bible. This year, 2014, is something completely different. We are going to read through the four Gospels, four times. In addition, I’ve added the reading of Psalms four times too.

On January 17th I read Matthew, chapter 17. This is the chapter when Jesus led Peter, James and John up the mountain of transfiguration. After that amazing experience, Jesus finds out from a father that the disciples failed to heal his demon-possessed son. Jesus got mad at his disciples and then healed the boy. The disciples wanted to know why they couldn’t drive out the demon…

“Because of your little faith,” He told them. “For I assure you: If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Matthew 17:20

Sometimes I feel just like those poor old disciples must have. If all that’s needed is a mustard seed amount of faith, then I must have faith the size of a… (Wait, need to look something up) Then I must have faith the size of a quark! I’m always praying for more faith. Like the song says, ‘oh for faith to trust Him more.’ It’s not that I don’t have faith in God. I believe completely that nothing is impossible with Him. But why can’t I believe this truth concerning myself?

Move a mountain, Lord? I’ll get right on that. Have faith and be patient until my books are published? Got it, Lord…being totally patient over here!

Then God spoke.

I prayed for my talent to be used more. Boy did He answer my prayer and what a blessing it’s been. The last quarter of 2013 was filled with so many dramatic performances, articles and writing, writing, writing. When my minister handed me what appeared to be a huge stack of work to be edited and re-worked for Easter I said, “Great, I’ll get right on this!” But as soon as he was out of sight, I looked at the papers in my hand, my jaw dropped open, I groaned loudly and the first thing that came to mind was…this is like a flippin mountain of work.

A mountain, where did that even come from? Oh, I see what you did there Lord! This is one of those lessons You’re so good at. So to say the least, I’ve been doing a lot of praying and I actually have faith that God is going to move that mountain. Thank You, Lord for reminding me of the mountain…the mustard seed…and to a lesser extent, the quark.

Creative Commons Photo Compliments of:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gigi62

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